Michigan-Illinois "rivalry" has a wikipedia page...
usually the folks at wikipedia are very anal about what is rivalry and what's not.
I can't believe there's actually a page. And it's pretty detailed.
I'm completely unaware of said-rivalry with Illinois. Are they serious?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois%E2%80%93Michigan_football_rivalry
November 2nd, 2015 at 12:30 AM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 10:24 PM ^
"Michigan leads the series 69–23–2."
Lol. I think that pretty much wipes out the possibility of a rivalry right there. Also I had no idea Illinois had won any national championships. Seems like I would know that about a rival.
The page did make me take notice of the fact that we both have pretty crappy bowl records, and made me think about the Big Ten overall in bowl games. Is there a diary out there somewhere about home-field advantage in bowl games all time? (Meaning the team less than 1000 miles from home, which is never the Big Ten).
November 1st, 2015 at 10:54 PM ^
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November 1st, 2015 at 10:29 PM ^
Michigan is 35-5-2 in the last 42 meetings.
lol
I could entertain the idea if it was a Basketball page, as the series record is getting really tight due to Michigan winning every year and beating them by embarrassing them, but Football?
November 1st, 2015 at 10:28 PM ^
Think the anger on the Illinois side comes from '89 in basketball, when they swept us in the regular season and then we eliminated them in the Final Four.
November 1st, 2015 at 10:33 PM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 10:48 PM ^
but there's also Bo's wrathful beatdown of the Illini following their firing of Gary Moeller (already mentioned above), and even bigger, Illini fans blamed Bo for blowing the whistle on their head coach Mike White and his shady practices.
The Illini became suddenly powerful in the mid 80's under White, but they flamed out when the program got punished for their violations and lost a pile of scholarships. I don't know what role Bo had in the demise of White, but the bottom line is that White was doing the cheating, not Bo.
30 years after those three events, Illini fans haven't gotten over it.
November 1st, 2015 at 10:52 PM ^
What happened with Moeller at Illinois???
November 1st, 2015 at 11:00 PM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 11:02 PM ^
They fired him after only three years. Bo thought he didn't get a fair shake.
November 2nd, 2015 at 10:51 AM ^
Had a friend that went to Illinois at the time, and he told me about how excited people were about the football team that year, how the stadium was packed full, how their program was on the up and up, and that single event completely destroyed everything for their entire future forever and ever. They are like Cubs fans with Bartman, it's pathetic.
November 1st, 2015 at 10:29 PM ^
I like how Michigan has won 3 times as many as they've lost but almost all the recent "highlights" are Illinois upset victories.
November 1st, 2015 at 11:25 PM ^
An expectation is not a highlight.
November 1st, 2015 at 10:30 PM ^
Shit, I remember going to Champaign for the game in '04, and the cover of the student newspaper was a ring of all the B1G team logos with the headline "Who is our rival?" I kid you not.
November 1st, 2015 at 10:33 PM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 10:48 PM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 10:33 PM ^
What about Northwestern? They are in the same state and they always meet on the final day of the season. Is that not really a thing to them?
November 1st, 2015 at 11:20 PM ^
They may be in the same state but it's not really a rivalry. Illinois is a huge public school with the majority of its student body coming from Illinois. Northwestern is a smaller private school with the majority of its student body coming from outside Illinois. They aren't really peers of each other academically or athletically.
I would imagine the Northwestern - llinois rivalry to be equivalent to Tennessee - Vanderbilt.
November 1st, 2015 at 11:36 PM ^
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November 2nd, 2015 at 12:37 AM ^
NU was utterly hopeless. At one point, there was semi-serious talk about them giving up and leaving the Big Ten. http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304906704579113410766027876…
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November 2nd, 2015 at 12:25 AM ^
The schools pretty much don't even act like they come from the same planet. There's zero intensity there.
November 2nd, 2015 at 12:34 AM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 10:40 PM ^
Illinois fans were the first I ever saw wearing "Ann Arbor is a whore" or "Muck Fichigan" shirts. They really, really hate us. It's pretty entertaining.
Sadly, the last UM game I went to was the Illinois game in RichRod's first year. A buddy was on their team and got me tickets, in the Illinois section unfortunately. They killed us.
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November 1st, 2015 at 10:42 PM ^
Yeah, but which coach got the last laugh in that contest?
November 1st, 2015 at 10:43 PM ^
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November 1st, 2015 at 11:24 PM ^
November 2nd, 2015 at 7:48 AM ^
November 2nd, 2015 at 1:44 PM ^
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November 1st, 2015 at 11:26 PM ^
It wasn't that much later that Zook would find himself punting from Indiana's 30 in 2011, which of course is the seasons where Illinois decided it had seen enough of the man who would punt when you least expected it. Such was his time at Illinois, especially towards the end of his seven year tenure.
In retrospect, maybe losing a shootout like that was something he took as sign that special teams felt neglected and they should get reps despite having advantageous field position.
November 2nd, 2015 at 12:02 AM ^
That was one of the first games I watched streaming.
November 1st, 2015 at 10:43 PM ^
Maryland-Penn State has a "rivalry page"
Pretty sure as long as it's factual, Wikipedia just has a page for anything
November 1st, 2015 at 10:49 PM ^
Yeah I'm sure BYU has us listed as their #1 rival as well
November 1st, 2015 at 11:05 PM ^
Wikipedia just has a page for anythingFixed it for you.
November 2nd, 2015 at 2:06 AM ^
Maryland and Penn State played each other each year from 1960 to 1993 when Penn State joined the Big Ten. Even though Maryland got just their 2nd all-time win against PSU last year.
November 2nd, 2015 at 1:32 PM ^
that was played every year even when Penn State was an independent.
Thing is, no matter how good Maryland was (even during the Boomer Esiason years) they could NEVER beat Penn State.
November 1st, 2015 at 10:45 PM ^
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November 1st, 2015 at 10:52 PM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 11:05 PM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 10:52 PM ^
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November 1st, 2015 at 10:58 PM ^
November 2nd, 2015 at 9:15 AM ^
and I can tell you that the t-shirt shop printing Creepy Racist Mascot shirts is also the source of the Muck Fichigan/ Ann Arbor is a Whore shirts, too. The "rivalry" notion is strongest in the Greek community and embittered locals who never got over losing the aforementioned creepy mascot. Most University staff and academics chuckle when the topic of a rivalry comes up. A huge percentage of students here are international and really don't give a hoot.
November 1st, 2015 at 11:04 PM ^
Shows that the entire thing was basically written this past month...
November 1st, 2015 at 11:26 PM ^
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November 1st, 2015 at 11:36 PM ^
Went to the UM/IU football game in 1997 in Bloomington. "Fuck Michigan" signs all over campus, I was dumbfounded....
We won 38-0 I believe.
Go Blue.
November 2nd, 2015 at 12:34 AM ^
Their entire student section wore 'Muck Fichigan' shirts at the 2002 game. It made kicking their ass even better.
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November 2nd, 2015 at 12:46 AM ^
November 2nd, 2015 at 5:50 AM ^